Engineering dedicates facility, celebrates gifts

KU alum and benefactor Robert Eaton looks at photographs on display in the engineering school’s new Eaton Hall, which was dedicated on Oct. 17. Doug Koch/University Relations

Last month the School of Engineering dedicated its newest facility, Eaton Hall. This month the school is recognizing one of Eaton Hall’s donors and one of the school’s greatest supporters.

The $15 million, 80,000-square-foot hall, which was formally dedicated during a ceremony on Oct. 17, was named for donor and alumnus Robert Eaton of Naples, Fla. Eaton, an Arkansas City native, chairman emeritus of the Chrysler Corp. and retired chairman of DaimlerChrysler AG, was one of many private supporters who contributed financially to the project.

Another contributer to the project was alumnus Charles E. Spahr, retired chief executive of Standard Oil of Ohio.

The year Spahr gave his first contribution to KU, a gallon of gas cost 20 cents, Franklin Murphy was chancellor at KU and the Lawrence campus enrolled a mere 6,816 students.

Nearly five decades and dozens of gifts later, Spahr, civil engineering ’34, and his wife, Mary Jane, have committed $6.5 million through outright contributions and estate plans for the KU School of Engineering. The gift brings their total support for the university to more than $11.5 million since 1954.

The most recent gift from the Shaker Heights, Ohio, couple will establish the Charles and Mary Jane Spahr Engineering Fund at the KU Endowment Association. The unrestricted fund will provide support for engineering students and faculty members.